Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1887-03-27
CURIosITIEs OF CKIrICIsING
March ARantk.J

March Atlantic.
As for the pure absurdities OF oriti
cism. they may be culled like lowers
from every branch, and are pleasing
ouEiositiss for those who have liking
for such relics. Were human nature
less compIacent Ia its self -sufficiency,
thet might even aerse as q useful
warning to the impetuous young review
eFs Of today, and 30 be Dot without
their salutary influence on literature.
Whether the result of ignorance, or
dizziness, or bad temper, or national or
religious preiadiees. or Of mere personal
piQue, they have boldly challenged the
FidIcale of the world, and its amused
contempt has piIloFied them fer all
time. When Voltaire sneered at the
Inferno" and thought "Hamlel" tue
work OF q drunken savage, be at least
made q bid for the appreciation Of bis
countrymsn, who, as SehleRel wiitily
observes. we're in tbe habit Of speaking
IS though Louis XIV. had put an end to
casnabalism in Europe. Bat What did
EnRlishmen think when Hume told them
that Shakespeare was " born in rude
age, and educated in the Fudest manner,
without instruction from the world or
from books" and that he could not
uphold for any time "a reasonable pro-
priety OF thou9htr' How did they feel
when William Maginn brutally declared
that Keats,
The doubly dead
In that he died 50 young,
was bat a cookRey poet, who wrote
vulgar indeoOrums, probably in the
Indulgence of his social pFopensitiesF'
How did they feel when the same
Maginn called the ''Ad0nsis" "drearv
nonsense, and wild waste of words"
anj devoted bitter pages to proving that
Shelley was not only undsservi g, but
hopeless of poetic reputation Yet
surely indignation must have melted
into laughter when this notable reviewer
who has been recently reprinted
creating light for the new generation
added asrenelY that "a hundred or a
hundred thousand verses might be
made, equal to the best in "Adonais,"
vit out taking the pen of the pager"
This species Of sweeping assertion has
been repeated by critics more than once,
to ths annoyance of their friends and
the malicious delight Of their enemies.
Kuskil, VIII, with all his gifts seems
cursed With what Mr.. BARehOt calls "a
mind OF contrary hsxura, whose partio
ular bent IL is to contradict what those
around them say" has vsntured to tell
the world that any head clerk Of bar
eOuld write better history Of Greece
than Mr.. Grote, II be would have the
vanity 10 waite his time over IL. AID
have heard man of fair attachments
aud Of sound scholarship contend that
there were twenty living authors whe
could write plays a. fine az Shakespeare's
Jedrey's extraordinary blunders are
tss we'll kn1sn to need repetition, and
Christopher North vas not without his
share Of similar mishapS: Walpole
cheerfnlly sentenced Scandinavian po
etry in the bulk a. the horrors OF a Runic
stvaRe. Nine de Stael objected to the
"commount 50" Of Miss Austen's novels:
Wordsworth thought Voltsire dull. and
Soathey complained that Lamh's ESSAYS
lacked "sonnd religious feeling" George
Borrow, whose literary tastes we're at
least IS sFrstic as they were pronounced,
condemned Sir Walter SCOTS Wood
stock" ss "tiresoms. trashy, AEd anprin
cipled." and ranked Shakespeare, Pope
Addison, and the WEIGH bard, Hueh
Morris, G esther a. great poets" ap
parsntly without recognising any
marked difference in their respective
claims. Taen there is rains, Who fiads
"Pendsunis' and VANITY FAIR too full
OF sermons; Mr.. Daddy Warner. Who
compares the uild and genial humoF OF
Washington Irving 10 the activs vigoF
Of EIft. aud Mr.. Howslls, weo, perhaps
IN pity for cur sense II loss. would fam
persuade us that Ne osuld ne longer co
aure either the "manuerisms" OF
ID ckpns % the "confdsntial attitude" Of
fhacksray. were ve happy enoogh to
see these great men still in nn- midst.